No, I do not intend to write about Brexit, but I am interested in the decision-making process taken before the referendum. I wanted to make an intelligent choice, but all I got was conflicting opinions from soi-disant experts. In the end, and not until the day of voting, I made the choice which I thought would most benefit my grandchildren. This was an important decision, but we all make decisions every day. How does our brain cope?
It maximises its capacity to process information, first, by recognising new information which is important and by filtering out information which is unimportant, and, secondly, by comparing the new information with patterns already in the brain. These stored patterns provide our pre-packaged judgments, responses and attitudes. For example, our recognition of the characteristics of certain types of people or useful ways of behaving in particular situations.
